Yesterday was rather unusual on the journey from JOG to LE - for the first and possibly only time the virtual and real walks started from precisely the same place - Edwyn Ralph, a village (not a person) to the north of Bromyard.
@George J and Lu the terrier, who had signed up to be virtual meets for the day, thus became real ones as well.
When my costume and makeup teams had done their work and I had autographed all the items the well-wishers had bought from the merch truck, my cameraman announced that the light was now suitable. The three of us posed for posterity.
At 1030 the Village Hall was opened up for a Coffee Morning and Lego Marchbanks emerged. It turned out he had thought it to be a fine place to spend the previous night. I gave the Chairman enough to cover the cost of the jemmied lock and depleted bar stock. LM gave us a cursory nod and wave, then stomped off towards Ledbury on the next stage of the virtual walk.
George, Lu and I set off in the direction of the church, then the fields beyond. I looked at my map and pointed authoritatively in the direction we needed to go to follow the invisible public footpath. Not for the last time, 100m further on our route was blocked by a fence covered in barbed wire. I thought I saw my mistake and turned the map the right way round, but it didn’t seem to help matters. In the meantime, George had looked at the sun, then his watch, and was pointing in a completely different direction to where I could now see a metal gate glinting in the distance.
Sensibly, Lu decided to take control of the situation and led us to the first of two virtual railway stations that were pretending to be real, fitting perfectly with the theme for the day. This one was Rowden Mill.
We vaguely followed the course of the railway, passing extremely quickly under a rather dodgy-looking bridge…
…and after a few more miles arrived at Fencote, where the 'station' has a disconcerting is-it-or-isn’t-it air.
Despite now being on the Herefordshire Trail the grass was knee-high for long stretches. Lu would disappear for a while, then her head would re-emerge as she jumped up to check the route. We saw a red kite repeatedly soaring upwards and diving down, apparently without effort - fabulous.
Back at chez George, he and I saw off a bottle of Le Ronsay while Lu decided to recharge her batteries for part two…
…which involved George showing me the local flora…
…and Lu deciding it was her turn to wear a hat.
It was nearly 6.00 when the day’s walking was ended. My phone app said we had covered 12.4 miles, enough to get Lego Marchbanks two-thirds of the way to Ledbury. Thanks to George and Lu for a wonderful day out in glorious surroundings.
‘If you have been affected by any issues in this programme…’ - sorry, I mean ‘if you want to sign up as a virtual meetee…’ the route is still very fluid south of Bristol (ie only one meeting has been planned so far.) Volunteers are welcome.